A Family in Need of Hoarding Clean-Out Help

Just last week, Junk Relief completed a big project that was very rewarding. We successfully removed 150 cubic yards of debris from a south-side Chicago home. We typically boast of removing that much junk in a single day, but every hoarding situation is different. In this instance we had to work slowly to help the family recover some very important, missing items.

Before our arrival, the family had been working through a difficult time with their loved one recently removed from the home and admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately, as is the case with many hoarding situations, they were unaware of her poor living environment. After deciding the home was too overwhelming to clean up on their own, they called Junk Relief to assess and bid on the project.

We were glad to have received the call and we were onsite the next day. We were able to e-mail a written bid to the family that evening, and once we were approved, we worked with the family to put together a plan of action including a list of valued items we needed to find.

Before work could begin, we had to bug bomb the home to remove the fleas. Next, we started slowly removing junk room-by-room, floor-by-floor, while simultaneously searching carefully for the missing items.

After four days of removal and searching we were able to find almost all of what the family was looking for. The important items included things such as car keys, garage keys, personal paperwork and some new, unopened boxes of valuable items. We were glad we could find so many of these things for the family and reduce even a small amount of emotional distress around this difficult situation. We were also happy to complete the first step in restoring the property back to its original condition, so the family could be in a better position for any future decisions.

For a better sense of what the project entailed, you can see some more pictures below: